Giving Compass' Take:

• EdSurge discusses the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) learning in the K-12 space and explores what a future curriculum might look like.

• What would AI classes tie in to existing STEM training? In what ways might nonprofits or private corporations contribute to the cause?

• Here's more on the future of AI and education.

When Ayanna met Cozmo the robot, both she and the robot lit up. “it was like she met a new best friend,” her Boys and Girls Club teacher James Carter said. “They just clicked.” And when Cozmo said her name, “she was so excited she didn’t know what to do with herself.”

Even better, it was Ayanna who had programmed Cozmo to say it.

Ayanna is one of roughly 50 kids at the Boys and Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania who are using a new artificial intelligence kit created by ReadyAI. It’s one of several initiatives that promise to make AI as common in the classroom as it’s becoming in our lives.

Artificial intelligence powers Amazon’s recommendations engine, Google Translate and Siri, for example. But few U.S. elementary and secondary schools teach the subject, maybe because there are so few curricula available for students. Members of the “AI for K-12” work group wrote in a recent Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence white paper that “unlike the general subject of computing, when it comes to AI, there is little guidance for teaching at the K-12 level.”

But that’s starting to change. Among other advances, ISTE and AI4All are developing separate curricula with support from General Motors and Google, respectively, according to the white paper. Lead author Dave Touretzky of Carnegie Mellon has developed his own curriculum, Calypso. It’s part of the “AI-in-a-Box” kit, which is being used by more than a dozen community groups and school systems, including Carter’s class.

Read the full article about AI curriculum in schools by Danielle Dreilinger at EdSurge.